The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights is the First Ten Amendments
to the US Constitution. These amendments were passed all at once by the
First United States Congress in 1791. These Amendments are a very
important part of the Constitution that protect certain rights of
American citizens from being violated by the government, rights such as freedom of religion, freedom to bear arms, freedom of the press
and the right to trial by jury.

The Bill of Rights played a very
important part in the passing of the Constitution in the first place.
When the Constitution was first proposed, many individuals and state
conventions were concerned that it did not adequately protect the rights
of the citizens. Because of this, many people were against the
Constitution as it was written. Several state governments decided they
would vote to accept the Constitution only if a Bill of Rights was added. A Bill of Rights is a clearly spelled out list of the rights of the people that the government cannot meddle with.

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Original Bill of Rights

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Original Bill of Rights

In the end, it was agreed that the Constitution would be accepted as it was written, with the promise that the First Congress
would examine the various proposed amendments and would add the best
ones to the constitution to cover these concerns. All amendments had to
be passed by 3/4 of the states to be added to the Constitution, so this
process ensured that the people's concerns about their rights would be
addressed.

The states passed ten amendments that became law on December 15, 1791. These Ten Amendments are also known as the Bill of Rights. You can read the Bill of Rightshere or find brief overviews of the history, purpose and sections of the Bill of Rights on this page, with links to more in depth information.

Purpose of the Bill of Rights

The American Bill of Rights was introduced because of arguments that arose against the newly proposed US Constitution when it was first introduced. The Bill of Rights served two primary purposes, to define a list of specific individual
rights that the government could not encroach upon and to alleviate the
fears of the Constitution's detractors so they would support it.

James Madison

After the Constitutional Convention produced the
Constitution, it was sent to the states for their review. Each state
formed its own Constitutional Convention to accept or reject the
Constitution. They were known as "ratification" conventions, because to
"ratify" means to accept.

A lengthy debate began in each
colony about the merits of the Constitution. The Constitution's
supporters were known as Federalists, because they supported a strong
central government. The Federalists were led by such men as James
Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. The Constitution's detractors
were known as anti-Federalists. They believed the Constitution gave too much power to the central government at the expense of the states and individuals and were led by such men as Patrick Henry, George Mason and Elbridge Gerry.

Most people agreed that a stronger
government was needed. Since the end of the Revolutionary War, the
country had been governed by the Articles of Confederation, which created a very weak central government that turned out to be so weak that it couldn't raise revenue, support troops, enforce laws or even require its legislators to meet.

The colonists had purposely created a weak central government because of their fear that the government could grow too powerful
- the very reason for the Revolutionary War in the first place. After a
while though, they realized the government they had created could
barely function and as such, would not be able to protect them from foreign enemies or do anything else that a governments ought to do.

Patrick Henry

This was the reason for the creation
of the Constitution, to create a new, stronger government to replace
the weak one under the Articles of Confederation. Once it was decided to make a stronger government, however, the citizens still had to decide how strong they wanted this government to be.

Once the ratification debates began,
it soon became apparent that the Constitution would not be accepted in
several of the states because of this very concern - that the central
government would be too powerful. Anti-federalists condemned the fact that the Constitution did not have a Bill of Rights, which is a list of specific rights of the people that are not to be violated by the government.

To alleviate the fears of the anti-Federalists, the pro-Constitution forces promised that the First Congress would add a Bill of Rights
to the Constitution if they would go ahead and accept it. This promise
persuaded enough anti-Federalists to support the Constitution that it
finally passed.

Passage of the Bill of Rights

The First Congress began its session in March of 1789. On June 8, James Madison,
the chief author of the Constitution, gave a speech to Congress in
which he submitted 20 of the most requested amendments for
consideration. You can read James Madison's June 8, 1789 speech here.

Congress debated these and eventually chose twelve amendments
to send to the states for ratification. Each state then considered each
of the amendments. 3/4 of the states had to pass each amendment in
order for it to become part of the Constitution. Eventually, ten of them
were accepted by the states and these have become known as the Bill of Rights. They became law with Virginia's ratification on December 15, 1791.

You can learn much more about the creation of the Bill of Rights at our history of the Bill of Rights page here.

Picture of the Bill of Rights

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National Archives Rotunda
- current home of the
Bill of Rights

View a history of the Bill of Rights in pictures at our Bill of Rights Pictures page. You will see the original Bill of Rights that is now housed at the National Archives.

We also have pictures of letters from George Washington and James Madison revealing their opinions about the Bill of Rights.

You can see Madison's handwritten
notes he used to give his June 8, 1791 speech in which he introduced 20
amendments to be considered by Congress, as well as his original copy of
the Bill of Rights.

After the Bill of Rights was passed, President George Washington
had thirteen handwritten copies made for each of the thirteen states.
Several of these copies are still in existence today and can be seen
here.

Take a look at all of these fascinating images at our Bill of RightsPictures page here.

The First Amendment

The First Amendment is one of the most well known parts of the US Constitution. It forbids the Congress from making any...

law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances.

If it weren't for the First Amendment,
politicians could dictate to you how you could or could not express
faith in God, what you could say or could not say in public and who you
could or could not gather together with. It is a bedrock of the freedoms
enjoyed in this country.

The Bill of Rights
was added to the Constitution by the First Congress to ensure that the
government would never encroach upon the listed rights of the people.
The general attitude of the Founding Fathers was that human rights were not granted by the government, but protected by the government. The rights themselves came from God as a gift to humans by virtue of their being human.

Many of these key rights are protected from infringement by the First Amendment.

The Establishment Clause says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
This means Congress cannot force Americans to be part of any state
religion or believe in any particular creed. Without this provision,
Congress could establish a state religion and force everyone to
participate. It could also punish those who refused to be a part of it.
Learn more about the Establishment Clause.

The Free Exercise Clause forbids Congress from interfering in the "free exercise"
of religion. In other words, Congress is not to make laws regarding how
Americans may or may not express their religious beliefs. They cannot
regulate how, when, or to whom Americans must pray, or whether they
should even pray at all. They cannot tell people how to worship, when or
where to attend church or what beliefs they must hold. You can learn
more about the Free Exercise Clause here.

Civil Rights Protest

The Freedom of Speech Clause forbids Congress from making any laws "...abridging the freedom of speech." British history included a long train
of people being punished and even executed when their speech didn't
agree with the authorities. The Americans wanted to ensure that they
could always express their opinions without the fear of punishment by
officials who disagreed. You can learn more about the Freedom of Speech Clause.

The Freedom of the Press Clause
guarantees Congress will not make no law abridging the freedom of the
press. British history contained no freedom of the press. Every
publication was subject to government review. Freedom of the press was
extremely important to the Founding Fathers because the press was a key
source of spreading information during the Revolutionary War. Learn more
about the Freedom of the Press Clause here.

The Freedom of Assembly Clause
guarantees Americans the right to assemble with anyone they want. It
was an important right to the Founding Fathers because without this
right, the government could tell people when and with whom they could
meet and thereby restrict their ability to communicate and organize
opposition to the government. Many groups such as civil rights groups,
women's suffrage groups and labor unions have taken advantage of this
right over the years. You can learn more about the importance and
history of the Freedom of Assembly Clause here.

The Freedom of Petition Clause says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the people "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
This was very important to the Founding Fathers who tried over and over
again to get the British Parliament and King George III to address
their grievances with no success. It gives Americans the ability to
address the government about their concerns and ensure that their voices
are heard. Learn more about the Freedom of Petition Clause here.

First Ten Amendments

The First Ten Amendments are collectively known as the Bill of Rights.
Each amendment covers various rights that are guaranteed to American
citizens, including freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, freedom
from cruel and unusual punishment and freedom not to incriminate oneself
at trial. You can read more about each of these First Ten Amendments and the rights they protect here.

1st Amendment

The 1st Amendment
protects the rights of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition the
government. Without this right, the government could tell people how and
when to pray, what religion they must follow, what they can or cannot
say, who they can gather together with, what they can publish or
broadcast and could refuse to listen to their grievances.

The First Amendment
is considered to be one of the bedrocks of American civilization and is
highly valued by all American citizens. The rights it guarantees are
longed for by people around the world who live under governments that
violate these rights everyday. The First Amendment
is one of the reasons why people from every country seek to come to the
United States. They want to enjoy the same rights that American
citizens enjoy as a result of the First Amendment.

2nd Amendment

The 2nd Amendment guarantees the "right of the people to keep and bear arms."

The 2nd Amendment
is highly valued by Americans who want to hunt or protect themselves in
case of danger. The right to bear arms was very important to the
Founding Fathers because they did not want the government to overpower
the citizens if the government should become corrupt. If citizens were
not allowed to own their own guns, they could easily be controlled and
enslaved by the government.

In recent years, the meaning of the 2nd Amendment
has been debated vehemently. Some people believe the Amendment was only
meant to allow the states to form their own militias for purposes of
defense and that it has nothing to do with individuals owning guns for
other purposes.

Others believe the 2nd Amendment
grants all citizens the right to have guns under any circumstances.
Some recent court decisions have created limitations on the ability to
own guns, such as those that create zones where guns may not be carried
or require licensing, classes or background checks to own a gun.

You can learn more about the history and meaning of the 2nd Amendment here.

3rd Amendment

The 3rd Amendment
forbids the government from quartering troops on the private property
of individuals. Prior to the Revolutionary War, the British government
had passed the Quartering Act of 1765 and the Quartering Act of 1774, which required private citizens to house soldiers on their property if there were no public accommodations available.

The 3rd Amendment
guarantees the government will not house troops on private property
during peacetime and only as prescribed by law during times of war.

The 3rd Amendment
is one of the least familiar to Americans today because so few wars
have been fought on American territory and because the American army is
housed on large military bases.

You can learn more about the history and meaning of the 3rd Amendment here.

4th Amendment

The 4th Amendment
protects American citizens from illegal searches and seizures of their
private property and requires that a warrant be issued in order for a
government official to search or seize private property.

The 4th Amendment
had its origins in the British "writs of assistance" that were used by
colonial officials to search for smuggled contraband. The colonists had a
habit of trying to evade customs taxes on imported goods because the
taxes were so high. In response, the customs officials would get a "writ
of assistance," which gave them authority to search any private
property, any time they wanted.

This greatly angered the colonists and was one of their chief grievances against the Crown. When the Bill of Rights
was added to the Constitution, the citizens wanted their rights spelled
out very clearly when it came to searches, seizures of private property
and warrants.

The 4th Amendment
generally requires that in order for a search to be conducted of
private property, a warrant must be issued by a judge and only when
there has been probable cause demonstrated that a crime has been
committed. There are some exceptions, but generally speaking, if
evidence of a crime is obtained outside of this process, the search and
seizure is illegal and the evidence is not admissible in court.

5th Amendment

The 5th Amendment is one of the most important of the amendments listed in the Bill of Rights
and is also one of the most familiar to Americans due to the phrase "I
plead the Fifth," which is a defense often used in criminal trials.

The 5th Amendment protects several different rights, including:

The Right to be indicted by a Grand Jury for serious federal crimes.
This protection uses a group of average citizens to review the evidence
first to declare whether or not a potential case should go to trial.
This is a protection against corrupt government officials who might
attempt to try someone unfairly. You can read more about the Grand Jury Clause here. Learn about the most important Grand Jury Clause Cases here.

The Grand Jury Exception Clause makes an exception to the right to have
evidence examined by a grand jury for military personnel. The Founders
did this because of the unique situations that occur for military
personnel on the battlefield. Regular citizens and judges wouldn't be
able to relate to the situations faced by soldiers so separate military
courts were set up for them. You can learn more about the Grand Jury Exception Clause here. You can also learn about the most important Grand Jury Exception Clause Cases here.

The right to not be tried or punished twice for the same crime.
Modern courts apply this to all cases unless the first trial was found
to be somehow fraudulent. To be tried or convicted for the same crime
twice is known as Double Jeopardy. You can learn more about the Double Jeopardy Clause here. Learn about several of the most important Double Jeopardy Cases here.

The right to not testify against oneself in criminal proceedings.
At one time, English citizens could be tortured for not confessing to
crimes of which they were accused. This led to many faulty confessions
and convictions because people would confess to the crime, even if they
didn't do it, to avoid being tortured. This practice was finally
challenged and the right to not testify against oneself became standard
practice in English law. The right was also highly valued by the
Founding Fathers and was included in the Bill of Rights. You can read more about the Self-Incrimination Clause here. Read about the most important Self-Incrimination Cases here.

The right to be deprived of life, liberty or property only by due process of law.
This right means that the government must follow written law and
procedures when dealing with criminal or administrative matters. In
other words, government officials cannot make up rules on a whim in
dealing with people. The Due Process Clauses of the 5th and 14th Amendments
have been the subject of much controversy due to many rulings by the
Supreme Court. Many believe the Court has used Due Process to wrest
power away from state legislatures and Congress due to using very broad
definitions of "life, liberty and property," that have created many
"rights" not listed in the Constitution. Learn more about the Due Process Clause here. Learn about several of the most important Due Process Clauses Cases here.

The right to be paid a reasonable amount of money if the government needs your property for public use.
If the government needs your property to build a highway or a school,
it must pay you a reasonable amount of money for the transaction. The
private citizen has no right to say "No, I don't want to sell it," in
this case, but he must be fairly compensated. In recent years, some
jurisdictions have attempted to use this procedure, known as Eminent Domain,
to take private property from one party and sell it to another, if the
new use of the property would somehow benefit the public. The
constitutionality of this procedure has been the subject of much debate
in recent years. Learn more about the history and purpose of the Eminent Domain Clause here. You can also learn about many of the most important Eminent Domain Cases here.

You can read more about the history, meaning and purpose of the 5th Amendment here.

6th Amendment

Of the 26 rights guaranteed in the first 8 amendments of the Bill of Rights,
15 of them have to do with the rights of those accused of a committing a
crime. British history included a long history of false accusations for
political and religious differences. People were often charged and
punished unfairly for things they didn't do if they were in disagreement
with the authorities. People had been imprisoned, tortured and even
killed for things as simple as choosing a different religion than the
king or speaking out against a government official.

The 6th Amendment guarantees the accused of 7 specific rights:

The right to a speedy trial

The right to a public trial

The right to be judged by an impartial jury

The right to be notified of the nature and circumstances of the alleged crime

The right to confront witnesses who will testify against the accused

The right to find witnesses who will speak in favor of the accused

The right to have a lawyer

The Speedy Trial Clause
guarantees that you must be tried quickly and not left to sit in jail
for a long period of time before trial. You can find a summary of some
of the most important Speedy Trial Cases here.

The Public Trial Clause
guarantees that trials must be conducted in public in order to prevent
false charges or other underhandedness by court officials. Some of the
most important Public Trial Cases are summarized here.

Learn more about the history, purpose and meaning of the 6th Amendment here.

7th Amendment

The 7th Amendment guarantees the right to trial by jury in civil cases, while the 6th Amendment guarantees the same right in criminal cases. The same right is guaranteed in the case of an infamous crime, or felony, in the 5th Amendment.
The right to trial by jury was clearly important to the Founding
Fathers, or they would not have mentioned it so many times in the Bill of Rights.

The colonists had gone through a period of being
denied the right to trial by jury under the British Crown. Due to high
taxation and trade laws, colonists were heavily engaged in smuggling.
Officials began to try and convict more and more colonists for their
smuggling operations, but colonial juries frequently acquitted the
accused smugglers, even if they blatantly violated the law. This caused
the King to set up new courts without juries, so they could not
undermine the convictions. This gave an enormous amount of power to
judges who often had personal motives to convict the accused, such as
earning a percentage of the judgement against them, or to earn favor and
promotion in the eyes of the crown.

The Founding Fathers
saw trial by jury as a defense against just such corrupt government
officials. In a trial by jury, a group of the accused's own peers would
make the determination of guilt or innocence, rather than one individual
in the employment of the government. The accused's neighbors and peers
are likely to have similar interests and beliefs as the accused person.
The possibility for corruption is much less likely with a jury trial
than if the decision lies in the hands of a single judge, who may have
personal motives against the accused or an agenda he wishes to promote.

Learn more about the history, meaning and purpose of the 7th Amendment here.

8th Amendment

The 8th Amendment to the Constitution protects three rights for all Americans. It requires that:

Excessive bail shall not be required

Excessive fines shall not be imposed

Cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted

The Excessive Bail Clause

Bail is paid by an accused defendant in order to get
out of jail before the date of his trial. If the defendant shows up for
his trial, the bail money is returned to him, but if he fails to show
up for his trial, he forfeits the money.

Bail must be set sufficiently high that the accused
person has an incentive to show up for trial so he does not lose his
money, but it cannot be set so high that it is an unreasonable amount.

This was important to the Founding Fathers due to
instances in British history when judges required such high bail that
there was no way accused people could pay it. Judges often did this to
punish people with different political beliefs than their own.

The Excessive Fines Clause

The Courts will not allow fines that
are grossly disproportional to the seriousness of the offense. Even so,
higher courts rarely overturn the decision of a lower court where fines
are concerned. This is one of the least used provisions of the Bill of Rights. In fact, the Supreme Court never overturned a case for violating the Excessive Fines Clause until 1998.

The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause

Catherine Hayes burning at the
stake for murdering her husband

Tyburn, England, 1726

Great Britain had a long and terrible history of
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted on convicted criminals, things
such as burning at the stake, chopping off body parts, crucifixion,
castration, breaking on the wheel and so on. America's Founding Fathers
wanted to make sure no such punishments were inflicted in the United
States.

Catherine Hayes burning at the
stake for murdering her husband

Tyburn, England, 1726

In general, a punishment is considered to be cruel
and unusual if the majority of the public would deem it to be so, but if
the majority of the public approves of a certain type of punishment, it
is usually allowed. The Supreme Court has stated, based on this clause,
that punishments must be in proportionality to the crime committed.

Over time, the Court's definition of "cruel and
unusual" has changed. For example, the death penalty was allowed in all
of the original 13 states for crimes other than murder, but today, it is
not allowed for crimes other than murder or treason. It is also not
allowed if the guilty was younger than the age of 18 or mentally
incompetent at the time of the crime.

Death by lethal injection, hanging, the firing squad and by the electric chair are still allowed today.

9th Amendment

The 9th Amendment is one of the least referred to amendments in the Bill of Rights. It is also probably one of the most important and controversial. The 9th Amendment says, "The
enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

In plain language, it means that
although the Constitution lists certain rights of the people that may
not be violated by the government, there are also other rights of the people that are not listed, that the government may not violate either.

Supreme Court

The Founding Fathers believed that
man inherently has natural rights by virtue of his being human and that
the government should not violate those rights. They also thought it was
impossible for them to list all such rights. Instead, they addressed
some of the most important in the Constitution, but left the States to
determine the rest, as is spelled out in the 10th Amendment.

The problem is that the modern Supreme Court
has taken it upon itself to determine what those extra, unlisted rights
are and the States and the people have not challenged the Court in this
endeavor.

Today, a small handful of unelected judges often
throws out the laws passed by the people through their legislatures in
the name of "protecting civil rights." In reality, the Courts often
violate the will of the people by throwing out their laws and forcing
their own will upon the people. This is a source of much contention in
modern political debate.

You can learn more about the history, meaning and purpose of the 9th Amendment here.

10th Amendment

The 10th Amendment
reserves any rights not granted to the Federal Government in the
Constitution to the states. The Founding Fathers were extremely
concerned that the government not be too powerful. After all, they had
just fought a war to get rid of a tyrannical government.

President Franklin
D. Roosevelt

They created a government which listed the specific responsibilities of each branch of government. The Bill of Rights
was added to further specify the rights the government could not
encroach upon. The Founders wanted local governments to make most
decisions in their lives because local governments would be easier for
the people to control. Consequently, the 10th Amendment says that any powers not specifically given to the federal government were reserved to the states.

In recent years, through a set of gradual changes,
this right of the states has been largely abandoned. The Courts and
Congress have taken the initiative to legislate in many areas that were
once reserved to the states. This all began around the time of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal programs, which created many
federal jobs to help people get through the Great Depression. The New
Deal jobs programs caused many people to look to the government to play a
larger role in their lives than it had before. Since then, that role
has grown larger and larger.

You can learn more about the history and purpose of the 10th Amendment here.

Read the Bill of Rights

It is important for Americans to
understand their rights that are protected by the Constitution. If you
do not know what rights you have that are not to be violated by the
government, you could easily have these rights taken away by slick
tongued politicians. A good place to start is by actually reading the Bill of Rights and understanding the protections it provides. You can read the Bill of Rightshere. It will only take you a few minutes. It's not very long!